Here's a short, cute clip from id boss John Carmack's keynote address at this year's QuakeCon, in which the brutality of Super Mario Bros. 3 is compared to the more pedestrian Mario games of today.

Why do I bring it up? Well, Carmack and his old colleague John Romero once took Super Mario Bros. 3 apart at the seams, building a complete and from all accounts damn impressive port of the game for the PC back in 1990. They even shopped the game to Nintendo, who sadly turned them down.